Long before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, the United States was already unraveling.
As the North industrialized and the South doubled down on a system built on slavery, political compromise began to fail. From the Missouri Compromise to the Dred Scott decision, each attempt to hold the Union together only deepened mistrust and division.
Violence in Bleeding Kansas, the defiance of the Underground Railroad, and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 pushed the nation toward a breaking point. As southern states seceded and a new Confederate government formed, Union forts stood isolated in hostile territory.
Now, with tensions at their peak and Confederate guns trained on Fort Sumter, the country waits for the spark that will ignite a war unlike any it has known.
Learn more at: https://theconflictarchive.com/conflict/american-civil-war
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